société

\sɔ.sje.te\

/\sɔ.sje.te\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“société” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #252 in French word frequency and used as a noun.

#252
frequency rank, French
7
letters
10
tracked misspellings
13
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Assemblage d’humains qui sont unis par la nature ou par des lois ; commerce que les humains réunis ont naturellement les uns avec les autres.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

société vs soviet
57% similar
société vs society
71% similar
société vs Socrate
43% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for société
PropertyValue
Headwordsociété
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sɔ.sje.te\
Letters7
Frequency rank#252
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs13
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “société” sits in French frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). société lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for société is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sɔ.sje.te\. Corpus data places it at rank #252 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for société, with forms such as "osciété", "scoiété", and "socciété". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 13 confusable-pair relationships, "soviet", "society", "Socrate", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is société, spelled S-O-C-I-É-T-É.

Definition

  1. 1
    Assemblage d’humains qui sont unis par la nature ou par des lois ; commerce que les humains réunis ont naturellement les uns avec les autres.
  2. 2
    Classe dirigeante de cet assemblage.
  3. 3
    Assemblage naturel de certains animaux qui vivent réunis.
  4. 4
    Réunion de plusieurs personnes associées pour quelque intérêt, pour quelque affaire et sous certaines conditions.
  5. 5
    Compagnie de gens qui s’assemblent pour vivre selon les règles d’un institut religieux.
  6. 6
    Groupement de spécialistes ou d’amateurs éclairés, pour conférer ensemble sur certaines sciences.
  7. 7
    Réunions qui ont un objet politique.
  8. 8
    Petit groupe de personnes entretenant des liens plus ou moins étroits.
  9. 9
    Compagnie que forment entre eux les habitants les plus distingués d’une ville.
  10. 10
    Commerce ordinaire, habituel que l’on a avec certaines personnes.
  11. 11
    Petit groupe de personnes réuni autour de quelqu’un.
  12. 12
    Lot, ensemble des chevaux concurrents d'une course hippique.
  13. 13
    Club, jusqu'à il y a peu essentiellement masculin, où les adhérents se réunissent pour boire et jouer à la boule de fort.

This word in other languages

society(English)sociedad(Español)Gesellschaft(Deutsch)comunidade(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: osciété,scoiété,socciété,societe,socitéé,sociétté,sociéét,socéité,soicété,ssociété

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of société - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

osciété2scoiété2socciété1societe2socitéé2sociétté1sociéét2socéité2
Edit distance from "société"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "société"?
"société" is spelled S-O-C-I-É-T-É. The IPA pronunciation is \sɔ.sje.te\.
What does "société" mean?
As a noun, "société" means: Assemblage d’humains qui sont unis par la nature ou par des lois ; commerce que les humains réunis ont naturellement les uns avec les autres.
What words are commonly confused with "société"?
"société" is commonly confused with "soviet", "society", "Socrate". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "société"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "société" is \sɔ.sje.te\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "société" come from?
"société" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “société”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is S-O-C-I-É-T-É - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \sɔ.sje.te\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “soviet” - see the side-by-side comparison. société vs soviet
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list